"Beyond the Clouds" - Various Artists

Film

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Background Information

This was a film by director Michelangelo Antonioni, who adapted four short stories into one film from his book That Bowling Alley on the Tiber. Antonioni who was 83 suffered a stroke and was unable to finish the film and the film was completed with help by Wim Wenders.

Wenders has long had a relationship with U2 and often has had access to different versions of songs to use in his films. This film is no different. At the time U2 were working with Brian Eno on the Passengers project, and they contributed two songs to this film.

The first song “Beach Sequence” appears 33 minutes into the film. It scores a dialog-less scene at a beach. The version of the song that appeared on the Passengers album contains just a single line of a lyric by Bono, “time shoots on by” which appears part way through the song. The version used in the film is an instrumental and is identical to the original with the exception of this line being omitted, and some additional ambient noises from the beach seen in the film.

The movie ends with “Your Blue Room” over the final scenes of the movie, in fact the last dialog is spoken over the start of the song. It then plays completely over the credits. This mix of “Your Blue Room” is longer than the version that appears on the Passengers album, and omits Adam Clayton’s spoken vocals at the end of the song, instead mixing in Bono’s opening lines at the end of the song, and fading out as Bono can still be heard to sing.

The film debuted October 27, 1995 in Italy (titled “Al di là delle nuvole”), November 9, 1995 in Germany and January 24, 1996 in France (titled “Par-delà les nuages”). The release in Italy came two weeks prior to the release of Passengers Original Soundtracks 1, making it the debut location of these two songs. There was no commercial soundtrack for the film, and the film is the only place known to get these alternate versions of these songs.

The film was issued on VHS, and on DVD multiple times in various regions (including a release in North America on February 26, 2013).